Scan barcode
A review by sherwoodreads
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister by Anne Lister
These selections from the four million words of coded diary Lister wrote over the course of her life reinforce the notion that gay and lesbian life was very much a thing all along, but people dared not talk about it other than to their journal, or to a very trusted few.
Anne Lister had coded words within coded words. Such as 'kiss' meant sex or orgasm. None of the terms people used then got handed down because everyone had to live two lives, and the secret life was seldom detailed the way Lister does here.
She was born to the upper level of the gentry, though the family was running out of money. Through the diaries I gained the impression of a woman very proud of her class, and who thought of herself as a woman--but at the same time she thought nothing of getting out there with the men to do hard labor around the estate. And she ordered, and wore, masculine garments, such as a leather waistcoat, etc. She liked to dress male, and she also loved her femme finery.
She was also a staunch member of her church, and some entries indicate her inner struggle to reconcile to societal expectations, but she finally resolved that God made her that way, so it had to be okay, and anyway, most of the biblical references against same sex were aimed at men, not women. Because she was upfront to the aunt and uncle she lived with: she would never marry, and she "liked the ladies."
What's more, she had no trouble finding ladies who liked her, and who were willing to experiment, at least a little. She carried on an affair with a married woman--the woman having to marry because however else would she live? The choices were so few, and most of them pretty bleak if you did not have family money.
Anne Lister also struggles with crushing on women of a lower class. She is conservative, proud of her rank in life--a snob, in our terms, but at the same time she was gender-fluid in a way that many assume reserved for the 21st century. There are plenty of other Anne Listers through history, their voices just aren't heard for various reasons.
The rest of the diary is about her daily doings. She was not famous for anything, she created no great things, but she was clear-eyed about her own life, and how she wanted to live it. She also records how local men reacted to her, sometimes following her to offer themselves as a husband, and once, a man asked if she had a male member. So we get glimpses of how she was viewed in the community (she was known as "Gentleman Jack"), which again makes it clear that at the local level, gender fluidity was shrugged off in her particular community. This particular woman lived an otherwise ordinary life, suggesting that many others did as well. They just had to do it in secret.
Anne Lister had coded words within coded words. Such as 'kiss' meant sex or orgasm. None of the terms people used then got handed down because everyone had to live two lives, and the secret life was seldom detailed the way Lister does here.
She was born to the upper level of the gentry, though the family was running out of money. Through the diaries I gained the impression of a woman very proud of her class, and who thought of herself as a woman--but at the same time she thought nothing of getting out there with the men to do hard labor around the estate. And she ordered, and wore, masculine garments, such as a leather waistcoat, etc. She liked to dress male, and she also loved her femme finery.
She was also a staunch member of her church, and some entries indicate her inner struggle to reconcile to societal expectations, but she finally resolved that God made her that way, so it had to be okay, and anyway, most of the biblical references against same sex were aimed at men, not women. Because she was upfront to the aunt and uncle she lived with: she would never marry, and she "liked the ladies."
What's more, she had no trouble finding ladies who liked her, and who were willing to experiment, at least a little. She carried on an affair with a married woman--the woman having to marry because however else would she live? The choices were so few, and most of them pretty bleak if you did not have family money.
Anne Lister also struggles with crushing on women of a lower class. She is conservative, proud of her rank in life--a snob, in our terms, but at the same time she was gender-fluid in a way that many assume reserved for the 21st century. There are plenty of other Anne Listers through history, their voices just aren't heard for various reasons.
The rest of the diary is about her daily doings. She was not famous for anything, she created no great things, but she was clear-eyed about her own life, and how she wanted to live it. She also records how local men reacted to her, sometimes following her to offer themselves as a husband, and once, a man asked if she had a male member. So we get glimpses of how she was viewed in the community (she was known as "Gentleman Jack"), which again makes it clear that at the local level, gender fluidity was shrugged off in her particular community. This particular woman lived an otherwise ordinary life, suggesting that many others did as well. They just had to do it in secret.